I Love You
by Slobberyblobber
Summary: My version of the ending to The Makulan Invasion: Part 2. It's much more dramatic and bittersweet, I can promise you that.


Fear and horror ravaged my heart as I watched Tony fall from the alien spaceship. It was hard not to sit there like a lump and watch him fall, because how scared I was for him about froze me, but I couldn't just sit there and watch my best friend, the one person I loved more than anyone else in the world, die. Screaming his name, I charged up my boosters to a dangerously high level, and flew towards him in an attempt to catch him, but even the Rescue suit could not match the speed of his drop from the aircraft. As he smashed into the ground, the impact created an explosion, steering away the hundreds of people that had been slowly creeping out of the buildings to watch the aftermath.

I hadn't noticed that the torrent had thrown me onto the cement floor, I was so concerned about Tony that everything seemed to have the qualities of a senseless haze, or maybe it was because I was exhausted from fighting all those bad guys and getting beaten up most of the time. I shook my head, remembering Tony, and charged through the smoke that had abruptly turned into fire, ignoring how much it made my eyes water, and how it about burned off the ends of my lungs. I tried to scan the area, but it was so hot that even with my mask on, my eyeballs would probably turn into bacon if I opened them all the way.

Finally, I spotted a bright red and yellow lump and darted towards it. I knew that his mask was off, but I had no time to look in depth at his face, so I hauled his motionless body over my shoulders and tried not to think about how faint his heartbeats were.

As soon as I stepped into the light, I opened my mask so I could get a good look at Tony's face, and I nearly had a heart attack. His handsome face was all burned and bruised and cut up, which was probably partially the Makulan King's fault (I was totally going to rip his freaking head off, if he hadn't died as a result of the explosion.), and his skin was so pale..so..pale. Darkness engulfed me as I hit the floor, weak tears streaming down my face.

When I woke up, I instantly wanted to fall asleep and never wake up again, because a doctor was shining some stupid light in my face, I had these plugs up my nose, the worst headache of all time, and my lungs made me feel like a smoker. Worst of all, Tony's cut-up, white as a sheet face was there to torment me. I decided not to make the mistake of asking rhetorically if things could get any worse, because this was hurting me too much.

"Other than some temporary side effects of smoke inhalation, you seem to be in ship-shape Miss Potts, or should I call you Rescue?" The doctor said suddenly, moving the light away from my face.

"What? How did you know?!" I exclaimed, almost leaping out of my bed. Tony was going to kill me for letting my secret identity slip…

"Shhh, relax Patricia, everyone knows. You are Rescue, obviously, James is War Machine, and Tony Stark is Iron Man. Huh, ain't much of a surprise, that kid is a real genius. You other people surprise me though, I mean, you're just ordinary people, you don't even work for S.H.I.E.L.D.."

"Stop," I cut in. "I think you know a little too much, and if you ask me, my head hurts too much to hear any more."

"You've got quite the sense of humor, kiddo." The doctor laughed. "Anyways, you seemed awfully distraught when that Stark kid fell, so I'll leave you two alone for a few minutes. You deserve that much."

The doctor walked towards the door, cast one last sympathetic glance at me, then walked out and closed it. I heaved some kind of weird, choked-out sigh as I allowed myself to cry. Cry about how much my body hurt, cry about the fact that the boy that I loved so much was in critical condition, cry about my best friend Rhodey being in the hospital, cry about everyone knowing our secret identities, cry about..

I stopped thinking and let another stream of fresh tears run down my face, then cried and cried some more. Finally, when I had just about cried my eyes out, I decided to calm down and think things over…and confess.

"I hate you Tony," I hissed. "I hate you for dragging me into this life, into this hellish way of living, into making me to get to know you. Yeah, I got to know you all right; I got to see first-hand what a selfless person you are, how you risked your life, your well-being, and your sanity every day, just to help other people. Yo-you're such a sucker."

I continued on. "I got to see first-hand how funny and intelligent and kind you are; how freaking perfect you are. You can't be real, nobody's as ama-amazing as you a-and sweet…Ho-how could you have stick by my side all this time, even when I completely disregarded your mental health countless times?"

Finally I decided to quit pretending, to quit being tough. I decided to be honest.

"No, I'm sorry, I don't hate you, you turned a silly little policeman's daughter into a hero, you taught me right from wrong, you taught me to see the good in people, and you taught me to be willing to risk everything in order to protect other people and to preserve their well-being. You are real, you may be arrogant, stubborn, and kind of odd, but you are a person who has dedicated his life to protecting and improving the lives of other people, and no sane person should take that truth lightly. You-you've certainly improved mine." I said with a smile.

"I love you, okay?" I whispered sadly, picking up his left arm so I could rest my cheek on his hand.

There was nothing but silence. Great, I had just poured my heart and soul out to the white-washed walls.

Sobbing softly, I put down Tony's arm gently back on the mattress, then crawled back into my bed, thankful that I hadn't pulled out my nose-plugs during my episode of emotion—it was probably giving me oxygen or something.

Before the warmth and darkness enveloped me, a raspy voice that barely managed to be clear whispered in my ear.

"I love you too, Pep."


End file.
